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Cron Expression Generator & Explainer

Enter a standard 5-field cron expression to translate it into plain English

Meaning:

Enter a cron expression above.

Common Presets

How to use the Cron Expression Explainer

To understand a cron expression, paste the five fields into the box and the tool translates them into plain English, such as 0 9 * * 1-5 meaning at 9:00 AM Monday through Friday. Use the preset buttons to build common schedules quickly. It runs in your browser and is free.

  1. Enter a cron expression Type the standard five-field schedule: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week.
  2. Read the plain-English meaning The tool explains exactly when the schedule runs, handling steps, ranges, and lists.
  3. Use a preset Click a preset like every 15 minutes or every day at midnight to fill a common expression.
  4. Copy the expression Take the finished cron line into your crontab or scheduler.

About Cron Expressions

A cron expression is a string of five fields that defines a schedule for running tasks on Unix-like systems. The fields, in order, are: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-6, where 0 and 7 both mean Sunday).

Each field accepts special characters: * matches every value, */n runs at every nth interval, a-b defines a range, and a,b,c defines a list of specific values.

Example: 0 9 * * 1-5 means "At 09:00 AM, Monday through Friday".

Frequently Asked Questions

A standard cron expression has five space-separated fields: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), and day of week (0-6). Together they define when a scheduled task should run.

An asterisk means "every" possible value for that field. For example, an asterisk in the hour field means the task runs every hour, and an asterisk in every field means the task runs every minute.

A step value like */15 in the minute field means "every 15 minutes" — so at minutes 0, 15, 30, and 45. The number after the slash is the interval, and it repeats across the valid range of that field.

Day of month (field 3) specifies calendar days like the 1st or 15th, while day of week (field 5) specifies weekdays like Monday or Friday. When both are restricted, most cron implementations run the job when either condition matches.

No. All parsing and translation happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your cron expression is never uploaded to a server, making the tool safe for private or internal schedules.

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